SFX

There is increasing debate in the use of special effects. Some of the first SFX were things like stop motion in the original King Kong. This film was quite dependant on the actors. Now with the advance in technologies and huge SFX giants like ILM (Lucas' Industrial Light And Magic). The debate is that with the technology we have these days you can quite literally edit an actors facial expression, and even generate a different character and the actor does the movements and voice for it (Gollum by Andy Serkis in LOTR trilogy). Are people like Andy Serkis actors in these films, do they have as much right as any other actor to win awards? As films become increasingly less dependant on acting are we losing a certain quality to the movies and is their really such thing as an actor anymore???
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6571491.stm

Video sites

Youtube and Google Video; now both the same company but huge in their own rights. TV is often losing out to these sites because people can watch their program while they are on Myspace. The BBC have now created their own Youtube account so that they can at least get credit for their programs on the internet. Theres is some evidence that it is beneficial. Saturday Night Live in America had clips on these sites and their viewing figures increased as people saw the clips and were encouraged by them to watch it...

Social Networking

Myspace, Facebook, Bebo; all of these are social networking sites. The popularity of these sites is huge and still increasing. I believe that even email is being outdated by things like Myspace. I use Myspace messaging even more now than I do Hotmail and I even use Myspace rather than MSN in some cases.

The evolution of the games console controller...

Things were pretty basic at first, for example the Sega Master System controller, a rectangular piece of plastic with a some directional buttons on the left and a few more buttons on the right. Despite this simple design it has been the basis for most controllers still in use today. The shape began to change when most probably some research in anthropometrics (looking at the shapes, curves etc in the human body) was carried out to make them more comfortable in the hand. Some of the first of these controllers were the Sega Mega Drive controllers. Today we have Sony's Playstation 3 adopting the same old shape that fits nicely in 2 hands, Xbox 360 also using similar controllers (a bit chunkier) and these both have the directional buttons on the left and the others on the right, with the addition of a few more round the back and underneath. It is interesting to note that "start" buttons are also typically on the top middle. Nintendo have gone for something completely different with the Wii console. This controller, much more like TV remote almost seems to have taken a few steps back to make a very "new to gaming" friendly controller. Not only this but the controller is motion sensitive and comes with a numchuck to attach to do even more.
We then have the steering wheels, light guns, chainsaws etc to be used. With many flight sims you can even basically have the cockpit of a plane in your front room (a bit sad really) and similar things are done with driving games. Sony's Eye Toy completely removes the use of a controller and I had even my parents and their friends playing on that (under the influence of alcohol I might add). Guitar Hero is another recent game that uses a simple plastic guitar that looks more like it is a toddlers Fisher Price guitar!
So what comes next??? Is it worth buying all these controllers to pretend to play guitar or chop people up with chainsaws, or are we better off doing it for real (well maybe not the chainsaw part)...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_controller

Movie making

I am part of a group making a comedy show called Black and you have to bear in mind that we are able to film and edit our sketches to near proffesional standard, which not so many years ago would have been impossible. New media technologies allow us to do this, another less media related example is that my band is making studio quality recordings in pretty much a bedroom...

GTA 4

The new Grand Theft Auto trailer is released on Friday, and it is interesting enough that I might get a PS3 just to play the new GTA, I did something similar with the PS2 and GTA: Vice City.
The new GTA is very eagerly anticipated and I suspect many will do the same as my plan...

PS3 Now Out!

Microsoft have made a site ripping it to pieces, heres the article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6485483.stm?ls
I think they are just jealous.

www.chacha.com

This is a new search engine where you can search with a real person who will talk to you and assist you in finding what you want, take a look...

www.radioblogclub.com

How many of you have been on this site? It is still technically illegal, but rather than download music you can listen to others and create your own blog with music you have chosen on it...

Movies On The Web

Allfg.org, Youtube and Google Video...how many of you have ever watched or downloaded movies from these? Again trouble in the film industry is erupting because of the ease at which someone can go on the internet and download a movie - often before its official release - from the web. Legal battles are erupting - Viacom are attempting to sue Youtube/Google Video for these troubles.

File Sharing

Limewire, Napster, Kazaar: you have probably heard of them all - many of us download music apparently illegally off these and other sites everyday. So what is the problem? Well the music industry is losing lots of money when people are choosing to get an album otherwise costing maybe £10 for free. We are known as "Cyber Pirates" and there are "Net Police" who are trying to catch us. The Music industry is continually pushing for new laws - but are they fighting a losing battle?
Maybe they should use the rise in internet downloads to their advantage - they know people are going to illegally download the album so why don't they make it available under their name so at least they are achknowledged - one artist had many illegal downloads of songs from a new album but these songs were like previews and the sales of the album skyrocketed thanks to the downloads. The industry want PCs chipped with something to prevent illegal downloads - but the PC companies don't want PCs made by how the industry wants them - they make PCs for the public.
I would go on and tell you how file sharing works but I really can't be bothered.

The Impossible Quiz

This morning I came across a quiz made by Newgrounds (also made "Burnt Face Man). It is not entirely impossbile but it is very hard and the answers are not always as they seem! Take a look...
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/49231637/
It is things like this and other pieces of internet entertainment that challenge TV, not only is TV challenged by internet gaming, there is also the fact that you can watch a lot of the programs on TV on the internet - who needs on demand (which you can argue is not really on demand as it cannot be viewed exactly when you please) when you can quite literally watch a program exactly when you want on the internet, whether it be illegal or legal, this is truly on demand.
yay.

Blu-ray Vs. HD DVD

VHS won the first round against Sony's Betamax, despite being less advanced, so will Sony's Blu-ray beat the more simple HD DVD???
Here are some articles on the 2 formats:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDDVD

PS3, Xbox 360, Wii

PS3
As you all will no doubt have heard the Sony PS3 is going to be released in the UK next month and it is going to cost £425 for the 60 Gb premium model. Is it worth paying such a sum of money for a games console? It is a very powerful and revolutionary piece of kit, here is an article including the full specification for the console: http://playstationteam.com/ps3_specification/
What is interesting to note is that like the battle with VHS and Sony's Betamax, there is to be a second one - HD DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray. VHS, despite being the least advanced won the battle, but the PS3 has been designed for Blu-Ray, Sony are evidently confident that this time they will win the battle this time.
What you must bear in mind in the cost of the PS3 is that it is technically cheaper than what the PS1 cost which was £400, I believe. This is because of inflation, and also a much more technologically advanced console costs merely £25 more than its grandad.
If you are interested in the history of consoles then this Wikipedia article may interest you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console_sales

Xbox 360
I have quite a limited knowledge of the Xbox 360, but I have played one many times, can't really be bothered to talk about this much, we all know about it.

Wii
Having played a Wii several times, I can confirm it is a fantastic console, despite my doubts about it early on before it was released. The controller is what everyone talks about really, once you are used to it you will love it and going back to the good old Joy-pad will not be so easy...

PC or Mac?

You have probably all seen the Mitchell and Webb's adverts for Apple's Macs on Myspace. But which is the better, I would take a good guess that most people reading this post are on a PC, but are we better off with Macs? (which I might add are more expensive and much less common than the PC). It would be good if anyone who owns or regularly uses a Mac have an opinion, and of course anyone who uses a PC. And is a PC really for families that "clock in for dinner time" and dont have fun, as opposed to the Mac which Apple are marketing as more fun than a PC?
And then theres the viruses, PCs have so many more viruses than Macs and you have to restart them more than you do with Macs, so even if PCs are cheaper, are we better off with Macs which are incorporating more and more pieces of software prieviously exclusive to PCs? What you have to take into account is that Macs have so few viruses because the minority of people use them so the people that create viruses go for the most popular platform to cause the most trouble, but if we all started using Macs, then surely it will switch around and it could be 114,000 viruses: not on a PC...
opinions...?

About my first blog

I said Parker Lewis Can't Lose, but actually he can, he is a complete loser if you have ever seen the TV show.

Hello

This is David Hadland's blog. Yay. I like classic cars and poo, as well as music and singing and playing guitar in my band:
www.myspace.com/manchuriancandidatemusic

I do some canoeing. Joy. I really can't be arsed to write much more, take a look at my myspace if you actually care...
www.mypace.com/daveakajim

Bye.

P.S. Parker Lewis Can't Lose